Dog Friendly City Guide: Denver, USA

Denver sits a mile up, where the plains meet the Front Range. The city keeps seventeen off leash dog parks and more than 90 miles of off street trails inside its limits, and a good run of its brewery taprooms welcome dogs on the patio. Your dog will spend a lot of time on a lead here, but it will rarely be left out.

Getting There With a Dog

Arriving from abroad, your dog has to meet the rules of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they turn on where it has been in the six months before it lands. A dog that has been only in dog rabies-free or low-risk countries faces the simplest requirements. A dog that has spent any of that time in a high-risk country for dog rabies faces stricter ones, and one from a high-risk country that has not been vaccinated against rabies will not be allowed in at all, so read the CDC's dog importation pages well before you book.

Denver International Airport is well set up for a dog in transit. Its traveling with pets page says that pets other than service animals stay in their carriers inside the terminal, and lists relief areas on every concourse: indoor rooms after security in the centre cores of the A, B and C gates, outdoor decks on each concourse, and two more at international arrivals on the A gates. Before security there is a fenced outdoor area with a bench just outside door 200 on the west side of the Jeppesen Terminal.

Where to Stay

You can compare every hotel we have inspected in the city on our ranked dog friendly hotels in Denver, and one stands clear of the rest.

Halcyon, A Hotel in Cherry Creek holds a B and is the one to book with a dog of any size. It is a four star hotel of 154 rooms on Columbine Street in Cherry Creek, most of them open to dogs, and there is no weight limit. Your dog can come with you to the bar, the restaurant, the lounge and out onto the terrace. A bed, bowls and free treats are waiting in the room, staff will point you to the walks around Cherry Creek, and a settled dog may be left in the room while you go out. The fee is $150, with no deposit, for up to two dogs.

Two downtown hotels hold a C. Hotel Teatro, a five star house of 110 rooms on 14th Street, lets dogs of up to 50 pounds stay free. There is a bed, bowls and treats in the room, and your dog is welcome in the lounge. Sonesta Downtown Denver on Glenarm Place has no weight limit, puts out a bed and bowls, and welcomes dogs in the bar, the restaurant and the lounge, for $100 a stay.

Three more hold a D. Warwick Denver Hotel on Grant Street charges $50 a stay with no weight limit and lets dogs into the lounge and onto the terrace. Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel on Court Place provides a bed, bowls and poo bags for up to two dogs of up to 50 pounds, and welcomes cats too. Grand Hyatt Denver on Welton Street puts a bed in the room for up to two dogs of up to 50 pounds and lets you leave a calm dog while you dine.

Eat and Drink

In Denver the brewery patio is where your dog eats out, and the city's brewers have made a point of it.

The Platte Street taproom of Denver Beer Co sits in an old car garage where RiNo meets LoHi, and its dog friendly patio there has rotating food trucks alongside the beer. Westword readers voted the company Best Patio for Pets in 2026, and its taprooms in Lowry, which has its own restaurant serving seasonally inspired dishes, and on South Downing have dog friendly patios too.

Up in RiNo, BrewDog Denver on Wynkoop Street marks itself as dog friendly. It is a 10,000 square foot bar close to the 38th and Blake station, with 30 taps pouring BrewDog's own beers and Colorado breweries, a small brewery on site, burgers, wings and tacos, and spacious patios. Also in RiNo, on Walnut Street, Black Shirt Brewing Co brews its beer and makes its pizza from scratch under the banner of beer, pizza and rock and roll, and both its outdoor patios welcome dogs.

Cerebral Brewing says in its own words that well behaved pets are welcome on the patio at its Congress Park and West Highland taprooms, and inside at its Aurora Arts taproom, and local food trucks park at Aurora Arts and Congress Park. On the west side, the Odell Brewing Sloan's Lake Brewhouse has a scratch pizza kitchen, 16 Odell taps and a dog friendly rooftop patio looking over Sloan's Lake to the Rocky Mountains.

For a morning coffee, Stella's Coffee has been a fixture of South Pearl Street since 1991, pouring lattes and iced matcha teas from 7am, and its patio is dog friendly.

Walks and Parks

For a run off the lead, Denver Parks and Recreation keeps seventeen dog parks across the city. Railyard, at 19th Avenue and Little Raven Street, is the only one with lights, so it is open from 5am to 11pm, while the rest are open sunrise to sundown. Downtown there is a pop-up park in Skyline Park at 17th and Arapahoe, and the others include Little Box Car at Broadway and Lawrence Street, Carla Madison at 2405 East Colfax Avenue, Fuller at East 29th Avenue and Franklin Street, and Lowry at East 4th Place and South Yosemite. Every one has bag dispensers, and human food is not allowed inside, though dog treats are.

Washington Park and Cheesman Park are the two big leashed loops on the city's own list of park walks. That list gives Washington Park an outer loop of 2.5 miles, with shorter loops around Smith Lake and Grassmere Lake, and Cheesman Park an outer loop of 1.4 miles. Under the city's park rules dogs stay on a leash and under control in both, and urban parks are open from 5am to 11pm. For a longer walk, the Cherry Creek Trail is part of the city's off street network, and the city's Wall Fest brings new work by local artists to the walls along it.

Further out, Colorado Parks and Wildlife runs Cherry Creek State Park around a lake in Aurora, at 4201 South Parker Road. It has 35 miles of trails, 15 of them paved, where leashed dogs are welcome, and a dog off leash area for which you buy a daily pass at $3, covering one handler and up to three dogs, on top of the vehicle pass.

West of the city in the foothills, the red sandstone of Red Rocks Park is the walk to save for a clear morning. The park is open from an hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset every day, and pets are welcome in the amphitheatre itself when there is no show on, leashed and cleared up after. On concert days the amphitheatre usually closes to the public after lunch.

A Day Out

Start with coffee on the patio at Stella's on South Pearl Street, then walk the lakes of Washington Park while the air is cool. Spend the late morning on the Cherry Creek Trail and let your dog off for half an hour at Carla Madison. Lunch is a pizza on a Black Shirt patio in RiNo, with a pint at BrewDog round the corner. In the evening, cross to Sloan's Lake for sunset over the mountains from the Odell rooftop. On a second day, drive out early to Red Rocks before the heat, and finish on the Platte Street patio at Denver Beer Co, with a last run in the lit Railyard dog park after dark.

Good to Know

Denver's leash law is strict. The city's park rules say dogs must be on a leash and under physical control at all times, and the dog park rules say a dog stays leashed until it is inside a dog park and goes back on the lead before it leaves. The dog parks ask for a current rabies vaccination, with its tag on the collar or harness, and a Denver dog licence, and a dog must be spayed or neutered unless it holds a Denver intact permit, which is issued to Denver residents. The parks are closed to dogs in season and to children aged ten and under. Pick up after your dog everywhere, and carry water on every walk. When you eat out, expect your dog to sit with you on the patio.